


Spring and Catch

by flippyspoon



Series: Modern and Interesting: Drabbles and Ficlets [10]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 18:03:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1827337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon





	Spring and Catch

  
Jimmy was wandering Ripon one day and as he felt a phantom drop on his nose, hoping it was not prelude to a downpour, he thought he saw Thomas up ahead, arm in arm with a lady.  It was curious on two counts, since Mr. Barrow was supposed to be working.  Jimmy trotted ahead and chuckled when he realized he was wrong, of course.  It wasn’t Thomas at all.  The same thing had happened months before in York.  Jimmy had closed his eyes for a moment to feel the sun on his face and when he opened them he saw his mother buying peaches from a fruit vendor.  The lady had strawberry blonde curls and an old fashioned hat bursting with silk flowers.  The profile was his mother to a tee, but when she turned to smile at a gentleman, she vanished and a stranger stood in her place.

It was inevitable, he supposed, that when you lost someone you started seeing them everywhere.  You would likely seem them from time to time for the rest of your life.  Though Jimmy was not in danger of losing Thomas.  Unless Thomas finally tired of waiting.

He thought about this as he made his way to the edge of town and imagined a long life spent seeing Thomas’s mouth on stranger; Thomas’s hands on a visiting Lord at Downton; Thomas’s proud gait stolen by the Lord’s valet. He began to walk faster, suddenly wanting to be home.

That night he took Mr. Barrow in his arms for the first time.


End file.
